Good Morrow, Fine Friends!
It's been three years since I asked (begged) for an e-ink device intended for note-taking and doodling. My Thought: I would save SO much paper once I started doodling on a device! I was very, very, very right.
My wonderful husband gifted me such a device in 2019/2020, just before COVID sent us all home. When March arrived and I'd had a little practice with the e-ink thing, I resolved to start doing a daily comic. Those early comics are super rough...but the reason I stuck with them is a conversation I had with one of my best friends:
"How do I build up a body of work? I mean...it seems insurmountable."
"You just work on your art every single day, no exceptions. Not everything's going to be great, but you'll have a body of work!"
Rest in peace, Rita. You were an inspiration!
Now it's early 2023 and I create my comics on Artstudio Pro for the iPad. I draw every single day, even if I don't post a comic that day. Freddy the Frog has become my main focus, although I've anthropomorphized birds, bees, mice, hedgehogs, raccoons, ants, millipedes, cats, bodily organs...the list goes on. I post these to my blog "The Sociable Introvert." My comics were originally titled "North Country Plant." You'll notice a number of the comics have to do with that little green-leafed goof. I make silly references...some that a lot of people get, and some that are laser-focused on the esoterically inclined science fiction fan.
My mother recently made reference to my early drawings as a child. She was amused by the scribbling flow of them, and how I always had a really involved explanation for what I saw in those doodles. My drawing still comes from this process...a lot of the time, my hands find a rhythm and shape in absent-minded flowy nonsense. That's why digital art is my favorite--it allows me to go through version after version of a drawing without wasting paper. A few wavy lines turn into a frog musing from the bottom of a lake. A rectangle becomes a monolith. Sometimes the drawing is fully "done" before I've thought of the cutesy saying, rotten pun, simple haiku, love letter, or truly funny joke to go with it. It's a subconscious-mining method that allows me to feel like I have a real outlet for all of the random weirdness...because there is a LOT of random weirdness.
For those of you who follow my comic, thank you! For those of you who haven't heard of it, check it out. Shine on, crazy diamonds.
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